I live in Isaan. I am having trouble translating a word and hope someone can help.

 

We have two small dogs. The girl, my wife calls na-lak. Easy to understand. The boy dog, who appears to be slightly less intelligent, my wife calls "na-dtet".

 

What does this mean? She says it's an affectionate term for a stupid person, but for the life of me I can't find an English equivalent.

Hmmm. 

 

this is Nadech Kugimiya.

 

think your wife like him.

 

Just asked my wife, and she's not aware of any Thai word similar to "na dtet" that means less than intelligent.  She suggested that it might be from the Issan dialect.  She also said that the actor in the post above is well known for being handsome, but not for being dumb.

1 minute ago, up-country_sinclair said:

Just asked my wife, and she's not aware of any Thai word similar to "na dtet" that means less than intelligent.  She suggested that it might be from the Issan dialect.  She also said that the actor in the post above is well known for being handsome, but not for being dumb.

Yes, I am sure it's another Isaan slang word, which is why I can't find it anywhere.

Wife just came back to me and said, that she thinks the actor is from Isaan, and that perhaps he has played a lot of roles where his characters are not clever.  So, that could be where this stems from.

It is the Issan Jerry Lewis.   

Removed an off-topic post.

Have your wife write it in Thai and post it here, this will make it way easier.

OK she begrudgingly wrote it down for me:

 

 น่าเตะ

 

I am at a loss.

29 minutes ago, SteveK said:

OK she begrudgingly wrote it down for me:

 

 น่าเตะ

 

I am at a loss.

That's a difficult one. This is based on what i found on Google, later i will ask my girlfriend to explain it to me:

เตะ means kick, usually related to football. But น่าเตะ seems to be quite different to that.

It's mostly used for children, and it's usually used for something that's a bit cute or funny, it's not an insult.

The meaning changes a lot depending on the situation, so i think you won't get a clear answer. It's usally used instead of words like มันเขี้ยว / กวนตีน / ดื้อ

50 minutes ago, SteveK said:

OK she begrudgingly wrote it down for me:

 

 น่าเตะ

 

I am at a loss.

The closest would be " should kick it" ( it, the dog) = Ǹā tea

16 minutes ago, Isaanbiker said:

The closest would be " should kick it" ( it, the dog) = Ǹā tea

This is also what I found by making some overlaps between Lao and Thai

23 hours ago, SteveK said:

She says it's an affectionate term for a stupid person,

Why not named it : sam sallung ? ( meaning : 75% of a baht )

It's also an affectionate term for a person not quite finished ...

It looks like a typical play on words, two dogs, the bitch is called lovable and the dog is called kickable. 

Agree with tgeezer "kickable" seems the best translation.

 

My Isan girlfriend immediately said it means, "I want to kick your ass".    She thought I was saying something mean to her ????????????????

On 1/1/2020 at 1:09 PM, SteveK said:

OK she begrudgingly wrote it down for me:

 

 น่าเตะ

 

I am at a loss.

Google translate says 'should kick'

I translate it as 'worthy of a kick' (or deserving a kick)

na being the prefix meaning 'worthy' (na gliat = worthy of hate, na rak = worthy of love, etc)

and dtet meaning 'kick'

Nothing Issan about it, standard central Thai, assuming your Thai is good enough to understand some words can have different meanings when used in different positions in a sentence.

 

Two dogs, one lovable, and the other kickable.